Kaptai power badly hit by drastic fall in water level

5 May 2009, 18:00 PM

Shantimoy Chakma, Rangamati

With drastic fall of water level at the end of dry season, large islands have emerged in Kaptai Lake in Rangamati district. Photo: STAR

Power generation at Kaptai Hydroelectric Project (KHP) has come down to only 90-MW against its capacity of 230MW due to drastic fall of water level in the Kaptai Lake. As the country's lone hydroelectric power plant is now keeping only one of its five units operative during daytime and two units from 5:00pm to 6:00am, frequent load shedding is disturbing public life and hampering office works in Rangamati town. On an average, the town dwellers are experiencing eight to ten times of power cut in a day. At the end of the current dry season, the Means Sea Level (MSL) of the lake is 75.05 feet whereas it usually remains 82.40 feet during this period of the year. At the end of winter, water level of Kaptai Lake begins to decline and continues until the start of rainy season. At least 88.82 feet MSL in Kaptai Lake is required for power generation in fullest capacity at KHP. Due to the severe power cut, water supply by the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) is being disrupted for the last 15 days in Rangamati town, DPHE sources said. To find a solution to the power generation problem at the KHP, a cabinet meeting on April 6 formed a committee comprising the divisional commissioner of Chittagong, chairmen of three hill district councils, deputy commissioners, manager of KHP, a representative from the Ministry of Water Resources, concerned upazila chairmen and concerned UNOs. At a meeting held at the house of the governor of hydroelectric dam on Monday, the committee suggested setting up two power plants with 120MW to 150MW capacity, re-excavation of the canals around Kaptai dam, forestation on the catchments on 4250 square kilometre barren hilly area, social forestation and steps to check jhum cultivation.